


You Wouldn't Wanna Break A Nail

by AsagiStilinski



Series: Pridecember 2019 [17]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Changing Opinions, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Humor, M/M, Nail Polish, Pridecember, Yami Yuugi | Atem Has His Own Body, gender non-conforming, painting nails
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:27:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22128703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: Seto never saw the point of nail polish, and he's determined not to change his mind about it just because Atem is painting his nails......Or so he says
Relationships: Atem/Kaiba Seto
Series: Pridecember 2019 [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1560421
Comments: 1
Kudos: 30





	You Wouldn't Wanna Break A Nail

**Author's Note:**

> Day 17 of Pridecember- "Nails", because I love gender-non-conforming!Atem and boys who paint their nails

The first time Seto noticed it was during a duel

Because ofcourse it was

"And with this draw, Kaiba, I shall-"

"What the hell did you do to your nails?"

Evidently caught off guard for once in his life, Atem paused, his fingers still delicately curved over the card he was about to draw, but pulling away just long enough to examine the tips

"Ah.... I'm afraid I.... don't know what you mean....?"

"You painted your nails?" Seto returned, though it sounded alot less like an accusation than he had meant it

"Oh! Yes! Aren't they nice? Yugi's suggestion,"

"Yeaaahhh.... 'nice' really wasn't the word I was looking for there..." Seto replied slowly, his hand shifting down to rest on his hip, despite the loaded duel disk attached to it, eyes narrowed as he stared across the feild at the black gleam that practically shimmered in the sunlight

....Was that _glitter_ or was the matte finish just that shiny?

"I like them," Atem asserted with a happy hum as he drew his card

"Evidently,"

Seto wasn't even surprised that he lost that duel to be honest

He blamed the constant gleam from those shiny black nails

~+~

The second time it happened garnered a little more explanation, atleast

"Do you truly insist on doing these examinations every month? I've been back for half a year now, don't you think if a problem had arisen it would have presented it's self already?"

"You never know," Seto replied blandly, unwrapping the blood pressure cuff from Atem's arm

The pharaoh was less than pleased

As Seto was removing the cuff, however, he perchanced a glance down and-

"What did you do to your nails _this_ time?"

Beaming, Atem lifted his hand up to show off the shimmering polish in the light

"Do you like them? It was Tea`'s handiwork, it's called 'Peach Blossom Pink',"

"....And you've done this to yourself.... because....?"

"I like it," Atem frowned back, as though it were the most obvious answer in the universe

Maybe to the pharaoh it was, but Seto himself couldn't possibly imagine putting _any_ kind of paint on his body

Ofcourse this came from the same man who had spent exactly one month in his own body before getting his first tattoo and hadn't even had his own body for a full week before getting his ears peirced, so maybe it wasn't as surreal as Seto first assumed, but...

~+~

The third time Seto saw Atem with nail polish, there was undeniably glitter involved

"Why are you doing this to me?"

Atem craned his neck back over the edge of the couch and quriked an eyebrow at the CEO

"...Doing.... _what_... to you?"

" _This_ ," Seto repeated, making a vague, sweeping gesture towards the way Atem had lounged himself over the office couch, one hand propped up on the back, the other hanging uselessly over the arm next to his head, his feet bare and his toenails painted in the same sparkling teal color as his fingernails, the culprit- a bottle with English writing on it that Seto couldn't be bothered to read- was on the coffee table, and an American comic book laid open in Atem's lap

The only reason Seto had even gotten the couch and coffee table to begin with was because Atem liked to hang out in his office wile waiting for things to crop up at work, but this had to be considered an abuse of privilege somehow

"Oh, the comic book? It belongs to Joey, he said that one cannot be part of modern culture without knowing who Superman is, so-"

"Not that," Seto huffed- although the thought that Atem's head was being filled with fantasies about flying men who were bulletproof save for the touch of little green rocks was criminal in and of it's self

"'Oh.... was I not supposed to paint my nails in your office?"

Getting warmer

"You realize, don't you, that you look like you own the place?"

The grin that stretched over Atem's face was wicked enough to tell Seto that the pharaoh knew _exactly_ what he fucking looked like

"It's called 'Siren's Call', what do you think?"

A set of glittery nails was flashed in Seto's direction

He wasn't pleased

~+~

In fairness, if Seto was going to walk into Atem's home and expect not to interrupt something potentially personal, he really should have nocked first

But that didn't stop him from being filled with regret

"Atem, the technical team have finished their revisions on the new gaming syste-"

Ah...

Atem was sitting at the kitchen table with Joey across from him

...

Atem's nails were red with black spots, like little ladybugs, and he was painting little daisies on the orange matte covering Joey's nails

...

Great, now he had yet another partner in all this

"Oh hello Seto,"

Yes, over the last few months Atem had started using his first name

How, when, and why exactly this happened, Seto wasn't quite sure

"Would you like to join us?"

"No," Seto replied flatly

"See 'Tem? I told ya' he was too much of a stick-in-the-mud," Joey accused with a snort, resting his head peacefully on his palm as Atem worked on his other hand

"I am not a stick-in-the-mud, I just don't see the appeal of wasting valuable time to put color on your nails, wich are just going to get chipped, damaged, and faded anyway,"

"Uhhhh.... 'cause it's _fun_?" Joey noted, eyebrows raising

Seto's expression didn't change

"Looks exhilarating, are you two going to come test the new gaming system or should I call up another pair of duelists to do it for you?"

"We'll be there in half an hour," Atem answered, not looking up from his work

"Why so long?" Seto frowned

"We have to wait on the polish to dry and then apply a top coat,"

.....

Ofcourse

~+~

"Seto, I'm in need of your assistance,"

Well that was..... different

Atem didn't often come to him when he needed help with anything

...

He didn't often need help with anything either

"Alright.... I hesitate to ask what it is,"

His hesitation was well founded, a second later there were three bottles of nail polish placed delicately on his desk

"The pride festival is tommorrow, I was going to get my nails done with Yugi, Joey, and Duke a few hours ago but the game I was testing took longer than I expected and...well... it's a bit late now... Id hate to bother them at this hour,"

"And you want.... _me_.... to paint them for you?" Seto asked slowly

Atem nodded shyly, and if Seto didn't know better, he could have sworn that Atem's face was a bit... _flushed_...

"I would do it myself but I'm afraid I've yet to master painting with my left hand, it always comes out a bit crooked and outside of the lines...."

Staring up at the pharaoh's face, at the... hesitant and almost _shy_ look in his expression.... Seto couldn't possibly refuse

"Sit down," he ordered with a quiet huff, grabbing the firs bottle, a bright shimmering blue, and nodded for Atem to sit down

The pharaoh's eyes sparkled, his expression lighting up as he set his hands on the desk in front of Seto, letting the CEO clear away the work sitting between them and pull Atem's hand closer

"You know, I could paint your nails too if you'd like... you're coming to the pride festival too aren't you?" Atem asked with a soft, if a bit teaing, smile, practically batting his eyes at Seto as the first stroke of blue glided across his nail

"No thanks," Seto snorted back

"Are you sure? I don't have any purple with me but I could get some easily enough,"

Seto just shook his head, dipping the brush back into the bottle

"I have plenty of pride things to wear,"

"Why are you so against nail art?" Atem asked with a small pout

"It just seems pointless to invest so much time and energy into something that will be damaged so quickly,"

Wich was the same reason he never messed with make up

Atem just rolled his eyes, chuckling slowly as his free hand toyed with the bottle of yellow polish on the desk

"That's why you apply a clear top coat, so it _won't_ get damaged so quickly," he pointed out, lips ticking up into a small smirk

Seto didn't seem as convinced

"It still seems like a waste of time,"

"Mmm... to each their own," Atem shrugged back

"But if you ever change your mind, I'd be more than happy to apply it for you,"

Seto snorted, rolling his eyes as he grabbed the yellow polish

"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind,"

~+~

Incidentally, a few weeks later, the discussion reared it's head again, but this time with several significant differences...

"Look what I found Seto,"

Atem's nails- wich were freshly painted in a sparkling, glittering gold- tapped against a bottle of shimmering silver-blue as he set the bottle on the desk in front of him, a smirk plastered over his lips

Seto glanced up from his laptop, eyebrows raised

"It's called 'Blue Eyes Blue', surely THIS one you must want to try,"

Seto hated it when Atem was right but...

"Fine, go ahead and try it,"

With a bright, excited expression, Atem eagerly flopped down in the chair in front of the desk and grabbed Seto's hand, pulling it forward as the other man pushed the laptop aside to give the pharaoh more space, a slight grin on his face as he watched Atem prep the nail polish

He still thought having his nails painted was kind of pointless but...

Ever since that first night he'd done it for Atem, he had started painting the pharaoh's nails more and more often, finding it to be an oddly... _relaxing_... way to spend his time

And they _did_ look nice, for what it was worth

And Atem seemed awfully happy with the results...

"Thank you for trying this for me, I know it isn't quite your cup of tea," Atem said with a soft smile, leaning closer and giving him a chaste kiss on the lips

That was the other thing that changed, evidently pride festivals had a tendency to bring enlightenment and openness to more than just one area of life

"Yeah yeah, if I hate it though it comes right off,"

"That's only fair," Atem hummed, unscrewing the cap from the bottle and pulling the brush out

Seto decided, as the first stroke of silver-blue touched his nail, maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all


End file.
